Isaac Snyder
I am a black man raised outside of Black culture and oftentimes experienced my own culture from the outside. At an early stage in my life I recognized the separation. I felt that community as something just beyond my reach, and there was grief in that distance. Through my current work I reclaim that space, not by trying to “enter” as something external, but by realizing that I am not outside of it.
My practice often embraces feminine attributes, qualities historically denied to black men or framed as weakness. I reject that complicit framing and aim to highlight the strength it takes to be gentle. my work emerges from that space of duality, giving permission to be gentle without feeling small, Embracing femininity without surrendering masculinity. Existing as a reminder of belonging to a culture, not because you are accepted into it, but because you embody it. Not reconstructing a culture I missed, but recognizing the culture I have always lived.
